Natural disasters including hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes or even pandemics like the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Liberia can change lives forever. Back just 20 years ago when these types of phenomena occurred, concerned friends and family living outside the affected region might have waited days or even weeks before hearing...
Social Media, Smartphones and Sandy
Social media, accessible via mobile devices, was able to provide vital information during and after Superstorm Sandy. Twitter, for example, provided free promoted crisis tweets from FEMA and the Red Cross that stayed on the top of all Twitter feeds for easy reference. Twitter published a blog post hours before...